How To Get Snails Out of Their Shells
by OrdinaryXtreme
Summary: Amelia asks Kiku to help her sort out her messy library. In the process, he finds a rather peculiar book that reminds him of the day Amelia forcefully pulled him out of his futon and out into the beautiful world (no pun intended). Fem!America x Japan. Fluff and flashbacks. Rated T because I'm paranoid. Cover image not mine.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. If I did, there wouldn't even be Ameripan fanfiction anymore..**

**Warning: Flashbacks, fluff and proabably a slightly OOC Kiku. Other than that, nothing, I guess. Enjoy~**

"So, why did you call me here today, Amelia-san?" Kiku asked, closing the door behind him.

"Well, I want you to help me!" She grinned.

"H-help you with what?" He gulped nervously, fearing whatever was ahead, as Amelia lead him through the halls of her big house.

She didn't answer, but Kiku did not want to push her on. It might be a sensitive subject, he thought. After a bit of uncomfortable silence, they finally reached wooden double doors with the sign 'Library' stuck above it.

"I.." Amelia started, startling Kiku. "Want you to help me..." She paused dramatrically, slowly turning the knobs of both doors, "arrange the contents of my library!" She finally yelled, startling Kiku again despite his mental preparation, and pushed the doors open to reveal her horribly messy library, grinning widely.

After just a glance of the wreck Amelia called a library, he felt faint. He just wanted to spend his day reading manga in his comfortable futon, because he recieved a well-deserved day off, and then she called saying he needed to come there ASAP and hung up before he could refuse. Well, not like he could actually refuse her her, but i wouldn't hurt to try!

He cringed at the abundance of dust as he stepped in the room. Stacks of comics, DVDs and manga littered the floor and the bookshelves were filled to the brim with _actual_ books that she probably never even read.

"So, err.. w-where do we start?" He finally asked after a few moments of silently adjusting to the yellowish lighting in the dim room. He glanced up worriedly at the old golden-ish chandelier hanging from the ceiling. He was quite afraid it would fall on his head.

"Maybe we should sta-," Amelia stopped mid-sentence, leaving Kiku confused.

"Sta-,"

"?"

"Sta- ah.. damn..." It wasn't until she made a weird face that he understood her 'predicament'.

"Sta- Ah..Choo!" She finally let out a small sneeze. Kiku chuckled. He thought it was cute and cursed himself for not bringing his camera phone.

"D-don't laugh! Sneezing because of too much dust is _not _funny!" She pouted, face flushed in embarrassment.

"Okay, Amelia-san.." Kiku smiled, the urge to laugh again finally dying down. "You were saying?"

"We should start with that huge pile first!" She pointed to a huge stack of everything, starting from magazines to dictionaries, at the back of the library. He felt relieved they didn't have to start with the pile below the chandelier.

He felt eyebrows twitch after looking at that monster of a pile a second time, scanning the many types of books. Now, he'll never be able to read manga. Though, the thought of his rambunctious friend wanting to clean up was very strange. It must be close to the end of the world. Now all he needed is her not wanting to eat hamburgers, her not being scared of ghosts and her not wanting to be a hero. Though he knew that without hamburgers, her phobia of ghosts, and her desire to be at least one person's hero, she would lose her charm. The charm that attracted him to her.

"Okay, so now, what I want is all of these sorted out according to series. Like, magazine A issue 1 with magazine A issue 2, 3, 4 and so on.." She explained in mach 9 speed, using more examples and ended up with her reciting the names of the comics she had read. He smiled, just watching her blabber on, hand gestures and everything, again cursing himself for deciding to bring his old phone instead of his camera phone.

"Sooo, for work distribution, I'll work on the comics and you'll work on magazines and catalogues and dictionaries!" She ordered, finally finishing her explanation, grinning somewhat prideful-y.

"Figures.." he mumbled, feeling quite annoyed. He felt like an emotional roller coaster, going back and forth between staying to help Amelia and etching her cuteness in his memory, running home and hiding in his oh-so-comfortable futon, or just wanting to be invisble for a day. He wasn't even on PMS. Wait, he wasn't even a girl.

He proceeded to take a seat next to the pile and reached out to the book at the top, which was just within his reach. It was an old furniture catalogue. He opened the tattered, yellowing pages and browsed a bit, because, even if he wouldn't admit it, looking at furniture catalogues is what he would do if he ran out of things to do. He recognised a few pieces of furniture that he saw at least once in this house.

"You don't need this anymore, right?" He held up the 1993 catalogue.

"Yeah, you can throw away anything older than 15 years old, except for comics and manga, because those were probably mom's old advice books and women magazines or dad's old newspapers and catalogues," she replied, not taking her eyes off of sorting her collections. She will probably end up reading editions of X-Men instead of doing her work.

"Hai," He nodded, putting the book in an empty spot on the floor he metally labeled 'to be thrown', and smiled.

*the insert line thing isn't working, so, time skip!*

Kiku sighed. Amelia has fallen asleep after getting caught up reading the first few editions of X-Men she found, as he predicted. He observed her serene expression, eyes lightly closed, lips slightly open to let a small amount of drool escape her mouth. Cute, he chuckled again cursing himself for not bringing his brand new camera phone. He decided to go back to sorting out the books, separating the 'to be thrown's and comics accoring to series and issue, like she wanted.

As he was doing this, his eyes caught on to a book, quite different than the rest. While, most of her books, magazines and even dictionaries had colorful covers, since it was to her and probably her mother's liking, this book's cover was plain. Just dark blue with white text that said 'How To Get Snails Out of Their Shells'. On the corner of the cover is a lable with the name Emily F. Jones. Amelia's mother, Kiku figured. On the inside was Amelia's name, written in messy handwriting, and a few doodles to accompany the name.

He was quite confused with the title and decided to let curiosity take over as he flipped the book past the introductory pages and onto the first chapter, or step, as the author of the book put it. It was an advice book, he noticed, on how to get a shut-in, or _hikkikomori_ as Japanese people called it, out of their solitary life. As he was contemplating whether to throw it or to keep it, he was suddenly reminded of his own childhood life. Most of it consisted of him, laying in his room, utterly afraid of the outside world, only getting glances of it through his room window. Until a girl invited herself through the kitchen window and slammed the door to his room, waking him from his deep thoughts.

*Flashback*

Kiku was curled up in his comfortable, warm futon asking to himself about the meaning of life, until he heared the door to his room slam open. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of a grinning girl carrying a baseball bat, releasing a somewhat menacing aura.

"S-stay away!" He shouted, hands searching around him for any kind of weapon.

"What? Don't be afraid! I only use this bat to play baseball.. and hit my brother!" Her grin, if it was even possible, got wider, the brave statement she practically yelled at him not helping him feel any less scared.

"Come on!" She yelled again and pulled Kiku's hand, his weak body having no choice but to follow.

"W-where are we going?"

She let out a surprised gasp. "Outside of course!"

The girl grinned and pulled him to the front door, which was slightly ajar.

"I can't go outside! It's dangerous!" He refused, stuttering out reasons why going outside was a hazard and how it was better to stay at home.

"Don't be afraid! It might be dangerous out there, but I'll be your hero! I'll save you from any bad guy out there!" She vowed, making heroic poses which were supposed to make her look cool but made her look silly instead.

Kikur tried to resist the urge to chuckle. _Wait, chuckle?_ And at that very second, he realized just how long it had been since he last felt amused. It was like a ray of light in his gray skies, the sakura in his garden finally blossoming. He felt like he could trust her. For the first time in his life, he felt like he could trust some one other than his parents. He felt like he could put a lot of trust in her, even though he only saw her playing with the other kids in the block through his window once or twice. In the midst of processing the new emotion of sheer trust, he didn't notice the girl get impatient and squealed in surprise when she pushed him out of the, now open, door.

He took some time adjusting to the glare of the sun, which he obviously wasn't used to. After being able to safely open his eyes, without white spots blocking his vision, he finally saw the world he only ever saw through his room window. It was beautiful. The blue sky, the white clouds, the green grass, and the pinks, reds, purples, and yellows of spring flowers.

All his emotions seemed to dissolve into one. Fear with curiosity, anxiety with excitement, resentment with longing. He could feel the blood rushing faster in his veins, he felt alive, bubbles of emotions bursting everywhere in his body, his stomach churning with conflicting emotions to the very pit, his heart pounding harder into his chest until he couldn't take it anymore. He cried, tears spilling out of his eyes and running down his cheeks. He could barely make out the words when the girl asked, "Wh- why are you-? Do you have a sun allergy or something?"

For the first time in his remembered life, he laughed, wiping his tears with the sleeves of his slightly too big yukata. "No, no. It's okay. I'm just really overwhelmed and.. happy. Thank you for taking me outside... Arigatou.."

*End of Flashback*

He smiled fondly at the memory, hugging the book tight. He scooted closer to the still sleeping Amelia, brushing some hair away from her pretty face. He softly caressed her cheeks, careful not to wake her up. "Oh, Amelia... If only you knew.." he began, despite her not being able to hear him. "If only you knew how much you mean to me."

He smiled affectionately, lightly placing a kiss on her soft cheek.

"If only you knew how much this snail loves you.."

**Oh god QAQ *getting feels writing my own story***

**Thank you guys for staying to the end. I didn't really like the beginning to this story but of course I loved the end. This is the first fic I wrote for my beautiful OTP and I just wanted to focus on Kiku's inner thoughts and emotions. I may (or may not) make a sequel for this depending on whether or not my cluttered brain can give me any more ideas. If I do, expect Amelia's POV. I'm sorry for any mistakes or typos. Please, leave a review, don't be shy. Free cookies for all you awesome readers.**

**Ja nee~**

***OrdinaryXtreme**


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